


their places

by youlovelythief



Series: is it raining where you are? [3]
Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M, Pining, a rukia thinkpiece, i'm all here for rukia pining after ichigo tbh, so here u go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 08:04:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7500525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youlovelythief/pseuds/youlovelythief
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rukia can't let herself think like this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	their places

Rukia Kuchiki knows her place. 

It is next to her brother, chin high and eyes indifferent, as the next head of the Kuchiki clan. It is behind her captain, her vice captain's badge a welcome, steadying weight on her arm, an anchor grounding her among the ranks of her division. Her place is in Soul Society, it is paperwork and training and meetings and rare nights she goes out drinking with the other vice-captains. Her place is in front of a grave, curling her fists as the sun beats down on the black of her uniform.

She cannot help wondering whether places like those change. 

She thinks about Ichigo Kurosaki’s funeral very often. She wonders how an affair like that would go, if it would even matter. He would probably attend it himself, dryly comment on the design of his urn, the pictures they would put on display. She wonders whether they would even have a funeral, or if he would just inhabit a gigai and continue his life in the human world. Or perhaps he would choose Soul Society, officially join the Thirteen Divisions. 

Secretly, Rukia entertains the idea of an Ichigo Kurosaki that she does not have to leave. An Ichigo that lives in the same world as her, that is merely a dash away from her office door. There is no sleeping in his closet or braiding his sisters' hair, but there are dinners with him at the Kuchiki mansion, coy comments about his late paperwork, drinks with him and the other vice-captains. There is the chance to know each other in a peaceful world. There is a place for him in Soul Society—a neat, available place, ready whenever the occasion arises for him to take it.

It would be so easy, Rukia thinks, to give him a place in her life. She tries not to think of it, but of course she does—everybody does. It would be foolish to assume that, somewhere down the line, Ichigo Kurosaki would not wear a white captain's robe. 

She tells herself that she doesn't want that, that she wants him happy and aging in the human world, finishing high school and forgetting about these wars and this world she dragged him into. If Ichigo Kurosaki has to die in order to have his place be with her, then Rukia would gladly relive those seventeen months without him. Rukia would gladly never have him back.

Rukia Kuchiki knows her place. She’s always known her place.

She tells herself all the time that it isn't with Ichigo Kurosaki.


End file.
